The United Kingdom’s broadcast regulator Ofcom is considering letting “re-advertised” analog radio station licenses extend for twelve years, the maximum possible license length. The current policy is to set licenses approaching their expiration date at seven, but “market and regulatory developments” since 2010 suggest a reconsideration, a Ofcom consultation concludes: ” . . . we […]
The United Kingdom’s broadcast regulator Ofcom has awarded a five year FM license to a South Cheshire area community radio station appropriately named “The Cat.” I love this station. The Cat plays lots of R&B, Country, and Soul. It has programs with names like “Cat Country,” “The Puurfect Breakfast,” “Puurfect 80s,” “On the tiles,” and […]
South Wales commercial FM station holder Nation Radio Ltd. has petitioned the United Kingdom’s broadcast regulator for a format change. It has informed Ofcom that it wants to alter its “Character of Service” from a modern rock station targeting listeners age 15 to 34 to “one which requires the service to play rock-oriented music and […]
Round two of applications for the United Kingdom’s Community Radio Fund 2013/14 will begin on Wednesday October 9 and will close about a month later on November 6. The first round concluded in mid-July. The window is being run by the UK’s Ofcom agency, roughly equivalent to the United States’ Federal Communications Commission. As with the […]
The summary of Ofcom’s new study on minorities and mobile gadgets reads as follows: “Ethnic minority groups are . . . more likely to have home broadband and a mobile phone, although they are less likely to watch TV and listen to the radio, compared to the British population as a whole.” But what the United […]
The United Kingdom’s broadcast regulator Ofcom has released a new report on UK media. Among the findings: the average income for a community radio license in 2012 declined by 5.4% to £57,000, despite the fact that total revenue for the country’s 207 community stations grew to £10.5 million. Why the seemingly contradictory pattern? As we’ve […]
Ofcom, the United Kingdom’s broadcast regulator, has released its annual report for April 2012 through March 2013. This paragraph caught my eye: Over 200 community radio stations are now broadcasting in locations across the UK. Since Ofcom awarded the first community radio licence in 2005, a new station has launched on average every 13 days, […]
The United Kingdom’s broadcast regulator has opened up sections of Northern England to applications for FM community radio stations. These regions include West and South Yorkshire, Humberside, and North West England. North West England is the third most populous official region of the UK, following Greater London and South East. Yorkshire is the geographically the biggest […]
Northern Irelanders in the second half of their fifty-something years will soon have their own FM community radio station. The United Kingdom’s Ofcom agency says that “Belfast FM” will provide community radio “for people aged 55 and over in the City of Belfast.” The station is one of five applications that just got a green […]
The United Kingdom’s broadcast regulatory agency says that it has authorized the licensing of community radio stations on the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes the islands of Alderney and Sark, all part of the Channel Islands. This is a bit complicated, because Guernsey, which is located off the coast of northern France, is not actually […]
